It was only when Kendrik closed the door of his cell behind him that he noticed the stowaway.

“Hi there,” the blue-eyed boy from the hallway said, waving shyly. Sitting on Kendrik’s bed, cross-legged and smiling, he looked even younger than before. “Can I hide with you for a while?”

The kid must have sneaked inside while he had been busy beating up Clive, Kendrik realized. Quite a smart move for a boy of his age. Kendrik’s cell surely would be the last place that bully would come looking.

“Sure. Stay as long as you want.” Smiling, Kendrik reached out with his hand. “Hi, I am Kendrik.”

“I’ve been here an hour, maybe two.” Kendrik explained, but instantly saw that this hadn’t been the answer Luca had been expecting.

“And what were you before that?”

“A pet,” Kendrik replied. “And before that, a soldier.”

“Figures.” Grinning, Luca gestured towards the door. “The way you beat up Clive, that sure was no whore fighting.” Hesitating, he added: “Thanks for protecting me, though.”

“You are welcome,” Kendrik replied honestly. “What the hell was he thinking anyway, going after you like that? Does it happen often?”

“Only when I bite his dick.” Luca explained with such dry honesty that it took Kendrik several heartbeats to realize that the boy wasn’t joking. “See, I told him I would suck him off if he didn’t fuck my head. Of course he did, and I hate the way his fucking piercings clang against my teeth, you know? So I bit down, hard, and ran for my life. So, yeah, that’s been a first, but not the first time Clive’s beating someone up.”

“You... You work here?” Kendrik summed up the only horrifying fact that he had been able to distill out of Luca’s overly graphic explanation. “My god, how old are you?”

Luca blinked, slowly, as if insecure what kind of information Kendrik was actually asking for.

“Sure I work here,” he answered, “Everyone you’ll meet here behind the scenes works here.”

“And they never told me how old I am,” Luca said with a slight pout and a well-trained look through long, downcast lashes. “I think I am thirteen. Maybe even thirteen-and-a-half.”

“You – you are a child.”

Kendrik had known all the time that the people here in the Empire didn’t care one bit about protecting children, but actually being confronted with the fact like this was hard to swallow. Everything inside Kendrik screamed to get this child out of here, to protect and rescue him. But he had a role to play here, as well, and that included allowing children like that adorable boy on his bed being sold as a whore to people that were no better than the monsters that roamed the forests of Serin.

“Of course I am a child,” Luca replied, his innocent insecurity falling off him like a mask. “That’s my strongest selling point!”

Rubbing his nose, Luca reconsidered for a moment before adding:

“Actually I think I am at least sixteen, probably seventeen. I mean, I’ve been sold as thirteen now for at least three years, so I figure I am older than that. Right?”

“Oh my god.” The thoughts in Kendrik’s head were running in circles, not leaving much room for any witty remarks. “I am so sorry.”

Luca looked positively lost at Kendrik’s remark.

“Sorry for what?”

“For what they do to you.” Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kendrik registered that Luca didn’t see himself as a victim. Believing it, though, was another matter entirely. “You should be out there, at school, doing things normal kids do at your age.”

It took a conscious effort for Kendrik to confront the fact that Luca wasn’t the poor, victimized child he was supposed to be. He was young, yes, but also rather aware of his status and his options – which, as a slave here on Serin, were basically nil. Maybe, if seen from his perspective, living a life of relative safety and luxury wasn’t such a bad thing, then.

Why the hell was he even trying to justify any of this?!

“Uh – whatever.” Kendrik gave up his attempt to convince Luca to feel bad for himself. “It is just – where I come from, the age of consent is twenty-one, and I have never seen anyone as young as you working... in a brothel.”

“Sure, no problem.” Luca replied light-heartedly, still looking at Kendrik as if he was some rare animal, both to be marveled at and cautious of. “Consenting to what?”

Kendrik closed his eyes in a vain attempt to hide his frustration. Of course a civilized concept as ‘age of consent’ was virtually unknown in the Phoenix Empire. Staying undercover was proving so much harder than he had expected.

“Consenting to sex.” he answered without looking at Luca. “Sleeping with children is considered a harsh crime among my people.”

“Wow, that’s cruel.”

Kendrik’s complete lack of comprehension must have shown in his face, because Luca gave a stifled laugh and started explaining.

“Man, seriously. I would have to wait at least four more years before someone was allowed to fuck me? I don’t think I could survive that.” Chuckling, Luca looked at his hands. “I mean, I have got two healthy hands and a really filthy and creative mind, but five years? Your youngsters must be humping trees, desperate as they are.”

“I have never seen anything like that...” Kendrik replied hesitantly, struggling to reconcile everything he thought he had known about underage sex with the stubbornly untraumatized boy on his bed. “Maybe we should just change subjects now.”

“Oh.” Luca suddenly looked genuinely sorry. “Bad topic?”

If Kendrik had felt protective about Luca before, now his big, blue puppy eyes just made him want to hold and cuddle the boy.

“I know I am still clumsy,” Luca continued apologetically. “Ondine says I really got to work on that if I want to stay on the job.”

For a heartbeat, Kendrik was tempted to ask what exactly ‘staying on the job’ meant and why Luca considered that to be a good thing. But then he remembered the hard time he had had to swallow tonight’s earlier answers, and decided to shut up. He really wasn’t in the mood to stomach another vile revelation about the way people were treated in his husband’s empire.

“So... another subject,” Luca continued as if he hadn’t noticed Kendrik’s forced silence. “What about you, why are you here? Have you been bought by the Garden?”

“My Master sent me here for training,” Kendrik replied, happy to have anything to say that didn’t remind him of the fact that he was working in a place where they were selling children to perverted nobles. “He doesn’t like the way I ‘entertain guests’ and thinks that you folks here can help me.”

“Do you like entertaining guests?”

“No.” The answer had been out faster than Kendrik could think better of it. “No, not really. Actually, most of the time I have absolutely no clue at all what my Master expects of me.”

“Well, they sure know how to teach you here.” Luca replied. Hesitating for a moment, he looked at Kendrik before he asked: “You know you don’t have to keep standing around all the time, just because I am sitting on your bed, don’t you?”

Agitated as he had been, Kendrik hadn’t even realized he had remained standing all the time. Neither had he put his shirt back on, but then again, his long trousers almost covered more of his skin than Luca’s skimpy shirt and barely substantial shorts. So he sat down on his bed opposite Luca, wondering what to say next, as the boy asked lightly:

“So, are you waiting for someone or do you have a customer scheduled already?”

“I’m waiting for my first instructor.” Kendrik replied. “My Master doesn’t allow me to have customers. At least, that is what I think he said. I may perform, but ought to remain untouched, whatever that means.”

“That’s good.”

“What?”

“Well, it means that a) your Master really cares for you. Else he would have just sent you here and told them to drill you as fast as possible. He must be paying quite some money for them to accept such demands.” Stretching comfortably, Luca leaned back, revealing his fit, lean stomach and quite a lot of his immaculate white skin. “And secondly, it means that we have at least half an hour left.”

“Before what?”

“Before your instructor arrives.” Pointing at the large clock above the door, Luca explained: “This is a brothel, everything here happens by the hour. And if your instructor arrives, it will be at a full hour or he won’t come.”

“Makes sense. Good to know.” Looking back at Luca, Kendrik realized that he had no idea what he was supposed to do with the remaining time. “So, what are you doing here when you’ve got spare time on your hands?”

Instead of an answer, Luca stretched again, slipping deeper onto the bed. Biting his lower lip, he looked at Kendrik as if that was all he needed as an answer.

“Are you tired?” Kendrik asked, trying very hard not to jump to any obvious conclusions. “You can take a nap, if you want.”

But Luca only laughed at Kendrik’s feeble attempt of deflection. Nimble as a cat, he turned around onto all fours and prowled across the bed towards Kendrik, still biting his lower lip as if looking forward to an especially tasty treat.

“No, I am not tired,” he whispered close to Kendrik’s ear. His voice had taken on a husky note that should have been illegal on a boy of his age. “I just want you to fuck me.”

“No!” Kendrik replied firmly. “You don’t have to do that.”

Taken aback, Luca looked at Kendrik. “Of course I don’t have to, I’m off duty.”

“Please, Luca, stop. I would never hurt you.”

“I know.” Sitting down on the bed, Luca looked confused and yet determined. “I know. That is why I want to fuck around with you. It’d be fun for a change.”

This sudden reminder of Luca’s ‘job’ was just too much for Kendrik. He turned around and grabbed the boy by his shoulders, taking a deep breath to firmly explain to him that he would never, ever do such a terrible thing to him.

But excited as he was, Kendrik slipped into his old habits, and allowed himself a small glimpse at Luca’s emotions when his fingers touched his skin.

All of a sudden, his mind was overwhelmed with streaks of silver-white stars, spinning on a sky of midnight blue, the color of Luca’s eyes. Emotions washed over him, deep and cool like water of a lake at night, a longing like the silence of a winter forest, like moonlight casting through the trees. Those sensations were so big and honest and clear they were intoxicating.

As if having burned his fingers, Kendrik let go of Luca and all but jumped off the bed.

“No,” he whispered, staring at the boy with an equal mix of wonder and dread. “No.”

Still, the memories of Luca’s intense emotions reverberated in Kendrik’s mind, and already mingled with his own. What a luxury it would be to make love to someone who could feel this clearly, this vibrantly. He could almost see their emotions mingle, his red and Luca’s midnight blue, hot and cold, attracting and repelling each other. It would be utterly carnal, blissful, perfect.

And he would still be forcing himself on a boy not even a third of his age, who could easily be his son.

Disgusted at his own desire, Kendrik did the only thing he could – he fled out of his cell, closing the door tightly behind him. Leaning against the door, he took a deep, exhausted breath, hitting his head against the panel just to have something else to concentrate on.

Meeting someone with such a strong emotional resonance was a rare, almost mystical occurrence for empaths like him. Most empaths Kendrik knew never met their perfect partner.

But before he had touched Luca, he had already once met another person he connected that strongly to. Some years ago, he had been abandoned in his wrecked fighter jet when his people fled what the Empire called the ‘One Day War’. Kendrik had only survived because a certain Phoenix Knight had pulled him out of space. He had felt such a strong connection that day, and now he was married to Yaden. And his husbands. And their wife.

The implications were staggering. Suddenly, this mission had become the most complicated thing Kendrik ever had to face.